This trend continued in the 15th century, with Juan de Segovia's trilingual Qur'an (Arabic, Spanish, and Latin), now lost, and Cardinal Cisneros's multilingual Bible. In the 16th century, Pedro de Alcalá produced his Arabic primers for Spanish speakers, and several histories were written about the previous century's reconquest of the Kingdom of Granada with its aftermath of Moorish uprisings.[1]

Eclipse and renewal of Spanish Arabists

As Arabism was declining in Europe after the Reformation, this was also the case in Spain for like reasons, and due in particular to Mediterranean politics and to the repressive atmosphere created by the Spanish Inquisition. Some Moriscos hesitated to show their knowledge of their mother tongue.[2] In the mid-18th century a new phase of Arabism arose in Spain. Later, in the era of the Generación del 98 Spanish Arabism began to produce widely recognized studies, and thus regained its prominence, particularly regarding such Arabists as Miguel Asín Palacios (1871–1944), and Emilio García Gómez (1905–1995), as well as many others.[3]

Burton's time in the Pakistani province of Sindh prepared him well for the transgressive pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina that he undertook in 1853 (he was not a Muslim and non-Muslims are forbidden to enter these holy cities). Seven years in Pakistan had given Burton a familiarity with the customs and behaviour of Muslims. This journey made Burton famous. He had planned it whilst travelling disguised among the Muslims of Sindh, and had laboriously prepared for the ordeal by study and practice (including having himself circumcised to further lower the risk of being discovered).

Although Burton was not the first non-Muslim European to make the Hajj (that distinction belonging to Ludovico di Barthema in 1503), his pilgrimage is the most famous and the best documented of the time. He adopted various disguises, including that of a Pathan, to account for any oddities in speech, but he still had to master intricate Islamic ritual, and the minutiae of Eastern manners and etiquette. Burton's trek to Mecca was quite dangerous and his caravan was attacked by bandits (a common experience at the time). As he put it, although "...neither Koran or Sultan enjoin the death of Jew or Christian intruding within the columns that note the sanctuary limits, nothing could save a European detected by the populace, or one who after pilgrimage declared himself an unbeliever." The pilgrimage entitled him to the title of Hajji and to wear a green turban. Burton's own account of his journey is given in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah (1855).

Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Bell, was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, archaeologist and spy. She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq.

St John Philby

St John Philby was a British colonial office intelligence officer and King Ibn Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia's chief adviser in dealing with the British Empire and Western oil powers

Hans Wehr

Hans Wehr (1909–1981) was a German Arabist, professor at the University of Münster from 1957–1974. Wehr published the Arabisches Wörterbuch (1952), which was later published in an English edition as A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, edited by J. Milton Cowan. As part of this dictionary, Wehr created a transliteration scheme to represent the Arabic alphabet.

See also

References

^Two of these histories are the Guerra de Granada (War of Granada) by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and the Historia de la rebelión y castigo de los moriscos (History of the Rebellion and Punishment of the Moors) by Mármol Carvajal.

^Cabanelas, El morisco granadino Alonso del Castillo (Granada, 1965). Yet Alonso de Castillo (1520s-c.1610) himself and his work were esteemed, his being presented to the King, Philip II. (Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship (1970), at 13). However, it is also reported that among the less enlightened, efforts to understand the Arabic language or culture could be suspect, and on occasion Arabic books were burned. This was at a time when raiders from the Barbary states might land on the coast of Spain seeking captives for ransom or to sell into slavery. Meanwhile, Spanish and Ottoman fleets might be at sea, in a long struggle for control of the Mediterranean.